Genetic cross-species humanoid.

Summary:

It's in the title.

Genetic cross-species humanoid.

Dr Maplee 19 Dec 2019 03:03

So, i'm thinking about creating an SCP that is a humanoid reptile.

He is a fugitive from a factory that used children as lab rats and injected DNA from other animals into them, making them mutate and become… something else. The factory looked forward into creating some sort of ''perfect cross-species hybrid''. (sort of cliché, but i'm thinking about other ideas to make this more interesting.) He was able to escape the factory when he was in his mid twenties. (yeah, stayed a long time there.)

He was seen on the streets but was only really captured a month later.

He isn't really considered a human anymore due to his appearence, having sharp teeth, spikes on parts of his body and having a high regenerative capability (such as being able to regenerate parts of his body). He is very friendly and gentle to the foundation personnel, and really cooperative, and seems to be very prestative on cases of containment breach. But, i'm really indecisive, i want to make him be able to roam freely around the facility around some times of the day, i really wanted some help on how i'd be able to write that properly.

I was also thinking on making some personnel feel genuine fear due to his appearence when seeing him, sometimes in extreme cases even attacking him, but hes usually got a lot of patience to deal with those.

However, during a containment breach scenario he found someone that was in a dead-alive state, and when the zombie attacked him, he was able to break the zombies neck and spinal cord, and easily tearing the flesh and muscle, decapitating the zombie with his claws.
That, however, made me wonder if i could make him still be able to freeroam around the facility, because he could possibly still be able to kill a human if he wants to, but just prefers not to.

I'm sorry if i wrote too much, i've got a feeling that if i wrote less it would probably be a little harder to get the idea of what he is and where he was found.

Re: Genetic cross-species humanoid.

Doctor Fullham 19 Dec 2019 03:35

So, what you have currently is the "Superpowered humanoid" or "X-Man" concept. These SCPs are often attempted, and often don't work for the reason that they're hard to make interesting without just writing a comic book story. An SCP article is much more than simply an anomalous item, being, place, or event. The true meat of the SCP is the story around the anomalous thing. The thing itself is a vehicle that the narrative is attached to. To give my best example from Series 1, look at SCP 093: The anomalous item itself is a rock that turns mirrors into interdimensional portals. The thing that makes this SCP shine is the story; the history of the dimension that it leads to.

I recommend reading several items on the Guide Hub:

How to Write an SCP

Clinical Tone: Declassified

Things What Do a Thing: An Essay On Anomalies That Are Things That Do A Thing

Essay Regarding SCPs, Narratives, and How They Can Share a Page

There are other guides there that can be very helpful, but these three are some of the most often recommended for first-time contributors.

As you are pitching a humanoid SCP idea, I also recommend reading So You Want To Write A Humanoid SCP Object to assist in avoiding the "X-Men problem."

General Notes

We need to know more than just "it's a guy who's really strong and looks scary." What story are you going to tell? Just the backstory of him being a lab experiment is overdone both in the Foundation-verse and pop culture overall.

I also recommend reading several (at least 10-20) of the top-rated SCPs from the last several months, and avoid reading series 1 SCPs for inspiration. Many series 1 SCPs would not last a day under current SCP standards, and a few are only still around because of their history with the wiki itself. (This does not apply to all series 1 SCPs, as you can see I mentioned 093 earlier, but many of these were written before the wiki's style had really been cemented.)

He is a fugitive from a factory that used children as lab rats…making them mutate and become… something else. The factory looked forward into creating some sort of ''perfect cross-species hybrid''.

This is the exact backstory of so, so many superheroes.

I was also thinking on making some personnel feel genuine fear due to his appearence when seeing him, sometimes in extreme cases even attacking him, but hes usually got a lot of patience to deal with those.

This is The Foundation we're talking about. Weird is what they do. If they can't handle a lizard man, they're not fit for Foundation employ. Unless this is some sort of memetic effect he has, it doesn't really work here.

The anomalous entity, while important, is not actually the main focus of the SCP. A good story, a compelling narrative, something that makes the reader feel something - that is the goal of an SCP article. What feeling do you want to evoke from the reader? Horror? Empathy? Sadness? You need to create a narrative around this object and its effects.

I am not saying this to discourage you, I just want you to understand the amount of effort that goes into creating a successful SCP.

If you can revise this idea with a story that you want to tell, we will be able to give you much more meaningful and constructive critique.

Re: Genetic cross-species humanoid.

Dr Maplee 19 Dec 2019 04:06

Thank you for your response, i was actually trying my very best to avoid the 'X-man' thing, but i also noticed that i sort of underestimated when people said that 'it's more difficult to write humanoids properly'. I will revise the concept further.

Last edited on 19 Dec 2019 04:15 by Dr Maplee Show more